This invention relates to an infant's car seat. It relates more particularly to a car seat which is extremely safe, yet comfortable for the child even though he or she may be required to remain in the seat for a long period of time.
Due to increased awareness by people of the various aspects of car safety, infants' car seats are being used more and more to protectively restrain infants and small children riding in automobiles. In fact, recently the U.S. government has imposed specifications and safety standards on seats of this type. Not only must the seats satisfy various static tests, they must also pass specific dynamic tests that measure the ability of the seat to protect various parts of the child's body when the automobile in which he is riding is struck from various angles.
Several car seat designs have been proposed and some have been implemented which are intended to protectively enclose the child. Generally these prior case seats are anchored to the automobile seats by the passenger lap belts that are standard equipment in all present day automobiles. Some car seats are designed to face forwardly, while others are arranged to face towards the rear of the car. Generally the prior seats include some form of relatively rigid shell in which the child sits or reclines. The automobile lap belt attaches to the shell directly or by way of frame elements to which the shell is secured.
In many cases, however, the automobile lap belt actually engages around the child sitting in the car seat. Consequently in the event of an impact tending to throw the car seat forward, a reaction force is applied to the waist area and/or upper torso of the infant that may cause injury to the child.
In other conventional car seats utilizing a shell and frame construction, a belt and/or shoulder harness is used to hold the baby in the car seat. In many cases, however, the harness is anchored to the shell. Accordingly, upon impact, the forward momentum of the baby exerts sufficient force on the harness to cause the shell to separate from the frame, resulting in injury to the child. In still other seats of this type, the harness which restrains the child tends to exert excessive localized force on the child's body when the child is propelled forward during a rear-end collision, thereby causing internal injuries. Still other seats of this type do not provide enough protection for the baby's head particularly upon the occurrence of side impacts.